Razer Kraken V3 X Headphones Review

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a similar black finish look as the Razer Kraken X, with metal grilles surrounding the ear cups and a flexible boom mic. However, these headphones have customizable RGB lighting on the ear cups that you can set in their companion software to better match your style. They only come in one color variation: 'Black'.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a decently comfortable fit. The ear cups have faux leather covering the exterior with a cloth-like material interior, which feels good against the skin. There's also some leather padding along the middle of the headphones. Unfortunately, they're a bit bulky, which is to be expected from gaming headphones, and the ear cups have a limited range of motion and articulation.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have sub-par controls, which is to be expected from entry-level gaming headphones. They only have a mic-mute button, which feels clicky, and a volume wheel on the left ear cup. These two controls are easy to use, though, and the mic mute button is indented to let you know when you're muted. However, the volume wheel lacks notches to indicate when you've reached minimum or maximum volume.

These headphones have okay breathability. They trap in some heat, which could make your ears warm over time. They're not meant for use during sports, so you may sweat more than usual wearing them. However, it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're wearing them while gaming.

The Razer Kraken V3 X, like most gaming headphones, aren't very portable. They're bulky, don't fold into a more compact form, and lack a carrying case.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have an okay build quality. They're very similar in build to the Razer Kraken X, as they're mostly made of plastic. They also have faux leather padding on the ear cups and headband as well as an audio cable wrapped in a silicone-like material. However, the padding feels cheap and weak while the audio cable isn't detachable, so you need to replace the headphones if it's damaged. The mic mute button also makes a spring-like noise when pressed, which some users may not like. On the upside, there are markings on the headband so that you can see its height measurements. If you're looking for better-built Razer headphones, try the Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have good stability. They shouldn't fall off your head if you're gaming, but they can move around with higher-intensity movement. Their audio cable isn't detachable either, so the headphones could get yanked off of your head if it gets caught on something.

• Razer Kraken V3 X headphones
• Manuals

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a very warm and dark sound profile. They deliver a lot of boom, which can help bring out sound effects in your gameplay. However, they lack a thumpy low-bass. Dialogue in video games also lack detail and articulation, while lead instruments in soundtracks are veiled and lispy. These headphones are very prone to inconsistent bass and treble delivery too. Their position, seal, and whether you have glasses or thick hair can all affect your listening experience each time you use them. Unfortunately, they lack an EQ to help tweak their sound to your liking.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have disappointing frequency response consistency. Both their bass and treble delivery can vary depending on fit, seal, and positioning. If you have thick hair or glasses, you may especially notice a drop in bass, as these elements can break the seal on your head.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have okay bass accuracy. They have an underemphasized low-bass, so your audio lacks thump and rumble. In comparison, the mid and high-bass are both overemphasized, which adds significant punch and boom to your mixes. Some users may find they sound muddy, though. That said, the response here represents the average bass response. Bass delivery can also vary across users, so your experience may vary.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have excellent mid accuracy. There's some overemphasis coming from the bass range, which makes your mix a bit cluttered and muddy. However, the rest of the range is very flat and even, resulting in clear and present vocals and lead instruments.

The treble accuracy of these headphones is bad. It's really underemphasized across the range, so vocals and lead instruments are veiled and lack detail. Sibilants like cymbals are dull and lispy. However, the treble delivery can vary across users, so your experience may vary.

The peaks and dips performance of the Razer Kraken V3 X is acceptable. There's a peak across most of the bass range, which adds thump, punch, and boom to your mix. A dip in the low to mid-mids thins out vocals and lead instruments, pushing them to the back of the mix, while the following peak in the high-mids and low-treble makes the upper harmonics of these sounds honky and harsh. The very steep dip in the low-treble veils the highest part of those vocals and lead instruments, while the small peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals sharp.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have middling stereo imaging performance. Their weight group delay falls beneath the audibility threshold, which ensures a tight bass and transparent treble. The left and right drivers are also well-matched in amplitude and frequency response, which helps accurately place and localize objects like voices, instruments, and sound effects like footsteps in the stereo image. However, the right driver is very mismatched in phase response. This mismatch can cause inaccuracies in the stereo image at certain frequencies. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a poor passive soundstage, which is common for closed-back gaming headphones. They don't have a very large soundstage, and audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed around you. Due to their closed-back design, the soundstage is perceived as unnatural and closed-off.

These headphones are compatible with a 7.1 virtual surround sound feature via their companion software. However, we don't currently test the performance of this feature, and you need to download the program and register your headphones to use it.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a mediocre weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a large peak in the treble range at both normal and high listening volumes. It can be a bit hard to hear with real-life content, though, and it may not be noticeable to all users.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have poor noise isolation. Like most over-ear gaming headphones, they don't block out any bass-range noise like bus or plane engines. They also struggle to cut down mid-range noise like ambient chatter, or higher-pitched sounds like the hum of an AC unit.

The Razer Kraken V3 X have a satisfactory leakage performance. They leak audio at a high volume, although it shouldn't be too audible if you're listening to audio in a moderately loud environment.

The boom mic has an excellent recording quality. Your voice sounds full-bodied, natural, and clear.

Update 12/09/2021: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The noise handling performance of the Razer Kraken V3 X's mic is decent. It can separate your voice from moderate ambient noise around you, like if you're at a gaming tournament. However, the background noise is still present as you speak.

Update 04/21/2021: We incorrectly reported that the companion app was compatible with macOS. However, you won't be able to access this app on macOS. We have updated our review to reflect these results.

The Razer Synapse companion software is unremarkable. It's only available on Windows, there's no EQ, so you can't tweak the headphones' sound to your liking, and it lacks mic control features like sidetone. There is a volume control slider, though, and you can customize the brightness, effect, or turn off their RGB lighting. There's also a link so you can access their 7.1 virtual surround feature.

The Razer Kraken V3 X come with a non-detachable USB-A cable. They have extremely low latency, so you can game without an issue.